Day 116 and 30 Day Shred stats

And now for the (bad) science bit.

I could take pictures, but if I’m honest about 4 months ago I scalded my midriff in a pasta accident and I still have burn scars so my tummy where the biggest change has occurred looks a bit odd. I know there are huge new muscles on my back, but how am I going to take a picture of them?

Before we begin, I need to state that these measurements were taken at home, by me on a pretty reliable and consistent set of scales. Fat/Muscle composition on home scales is a very rough approximation and also depends wildly on all sorts of things…measurements are always taken at approximately 6.30am before eating or drinking, but after weeing (TMI? – hey – this is my (bad) science project!) following at least 7 hours with no fluid intake.
So…what you all want to know is what happened on the Shred? Well – it looks like this:

Can you see what happened?
In the first two weeks I barely lost an ounce, but inches were being lost and my body composition was changing rapidly – especially in the light that no actual “weight” had been lost. So something was going on…and then in the last 16 days I lost over a stone and my body composition changed to reflect that.
I’ve shown how many lbs of muscle were lost and how many gained.
Lessons learned: PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE SCALES.
JILLIAN MAKES MUSCLES WHERE THERE WERE NONE.
ONE MONTH OF SHRED DOUBLED MY USUAL INCH LOSS.
And so whilst we’re on the pay no attention to the scales and plateaus need to be ridden out until the next valley appears lesson – why not take a look at the overall picture of my weight loss.

What I’ve done here is shown you my actual weight at the top and the lbs lost at the bottom. The straight non-wiggly lines are my projected weight-loss…which was calculated as follows: 10lbs over the first 8 or so days (I lost quite a bit of my glycogen in the 2 days before the plan started so I dropped my week 1 loss slightly to accommodate what I’d already lost) followed by 0.5lbs per day. Which is round about what should happen for a woman of my build and activity levels assuming I have a healthy metabolism (I do).

I know I say that we are not robots who lose 0.5lbs per day like clockwork, but if you look at this over the last 116 days, you will see that my weight corresponds exactly with that figure. The wiggly lines are what actually happened – sometimes I lose quick, sometimes I plateau, but it always goes down and it always joins up with the straight line.
The reason this graph looks like it does is because I stuck to the diet. It took me 35 days to lose the stone before this one, but I knew the results would come. And look at me go now.

So – for the very last time, if you stick to the plan for several weeks, ignoring any stay the same weeks, you will lose 3.5lbs a week. Never mind that your mate on Slimming World (everyone has one, I’ve noticed) lost 6lbs and had a curry and a Milky Way and boo hoo you didn’t eat anything and you lost 1lb. Slimming World buddy won’t get the same average weight loss as you over 10 weeks. So please stop comparing apples with pears!

Now – take a look at the actual day by day loss – orange squares are where there was a recognisable plateau pattern forming (ie more than 3 days of the same weight) if I had given up in my last plateau the last two weeks’ amazing loss would never have happened. Plateau away, something amazing will be just around the corner.

THE SCALES ARE JUST A SPRING AND SOME BATTERIES. IGNORE THEM!